Weekend Box Office (November 13 - 15, 2020)
THIS WEEKEND Universal leveraged November's timely Friday the 13th date and opened its new body-swapping horror-comedy Freaky to solid results in an otherwise lackluster frame. The R-rated slasher pic debuted to an estimated $3.7M from 2,472 locations for a $1,501 average which was very respectable by pandemic standards.
Reviews were positive and audiences also were happy with the clever film as the CinemaScore was a B-, pretty good for fright flicks. With its new distribution strategy, Universal will bring Freaky to premium VOD in a few weeks but its theatrical run is looking healthy especially with Saturday seeing only a small dip from its Friday the 13th opening. With a reported budget of only $6M, this Vince Vaughn-starrer should be yet another moneymaker for producer Blumhouse which now claims 14 number-one films.
As many top studios postpone their major film releases, the Universal family has now opened new movies at number one for the past three consecutive weeks with Freaky following a pair of Focus titles. According to studio data, the audience for Freaky was split evenly 50/50 male/female while 55% were 25 and older.
The Kevin Costner-Diane Lane drama Let Him Go fell hard after its top spot debut claiming second place with an estimated $1.8M, tumbling 55%. Focus has banked $7M in ten days. Coming in third was the standout performer this fall season, The War with Grandpa, which dipped only 12% in its sixth frame to an estimated $1.3M. 101 Studios broke the $15M mark this weekend - a rare feat for pandemic-era releases - reaching $15.2M on its way to possibly hitting $20M with Thanksgiving coming up.
Focus was back in fourth with the low-budget horror pic Come Play with an estimated $1.1M, down 39%, for a sum of $7.3M. Liam Neeson followed with his latest revenge flick Honest Thief which dropped 30% to an estimated $800,000 putting Open Road at $12.4M.
Falling out of the top five in its 11th weekend was Christopher Nolan's Tenet with an estimated $735,000, off 19%. New totals for Warner Bros. are now $353.5M worldwide including $56.3M (16%) from North America.
Disney's string of weekly re-releases continued with the first Marvel movie coming out of the vault. Guardians of the Galaxy returned to the big screen in 1,560 locations and grossed an estimated $406,000. The studio's Pixar classic Toy Story was next with an estimated $222,000, dropping 56% in its second weekend.
Sony Classics opened its new drama The Climb with an estimated $104,000 which was good enough for a spot in the top ten. 20th Century rounded out the top ten with The Empty Man at an estimated $81,000, crashing 73%, with a new cume at $2.9M.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $10.3M which was down 89% from last year when Ford v Ferrari opened at number one with $31.5M; and down 94% from 2018 when Fantastic Beasts: Grindelwald opened in the top spot with $62.2M.
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| # | Title | Nov 13 - 15 | Nov 6 - 8 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | Distributor |
| 1 | Freaky | $ 3,600,000 | 2,472 | 1 | $ 1,456 | $ 3,600,000 | Universal | ||
| 2 | Let Him Go | 1,750,000 | 4,000,000 | -56.3 | 2,458 | 2 | 712 | 6,800,000 | Focus |
| 3 | The War with Grandpa | 1,305,517 | 1,506,484 | -13.3 | 2,145 | 6 | 609 | 15,208,220 | 101 Studios |
| 4 | Come Play | 1,070,000 | 1,800,000 | -40.6 | 1,966 | 3 | 544 | 7,300,000 | Focus |
| 5 | Honest Thief | 779,991 | 1,141,091 | -31.6 | 1,843 | 5 | 423 | 12,362,117 | Open Road |
| 6 | Tenet | 735,000 | 905,000 | -18.8 | 1,223 | 11 | 601 | 56,300,000 | Warner Bros. |
| 7 | GOTG RE | 406,000 | 1,560 | 1 | 260 | 406,000 | Disney | ||
| 8 | True to the Game 2 | 288,000 | 290,000 | -0.7 | 281 | 2 | 1,025 | 611,000 | Imani / Faith |
| 9 | Toy Story RE | 222,000 | 505,000 | -56.0 | 1,360 | 2 | 163 | Disney | |
| 10 | Come Away | 106,084 | 475 | 1 | 223 | 106,084 | Relativity UV | ||
| Top 5 | $ 8,505,508 | $ 9,352,575 | -9.1 | ||||||
| Top 10 | 10,262,592 | 10,514,645 | -2.4 | ||||||
| Top 10 vs. 2019 | 10,262,592 | 89,599,064 | -88.5 | ||||||
| Top 10 vs. 2018 | 10,262,592 | 161,233,374 | -93.6 | ||||||
| Below the Top 10: | |||||||||
| The Climb | 98,000 | 408 | 1 | 240 | 98,000 | Sony Classics | |||
| Ammonite | 87,552 | 280 | 1 | 313 | 87,552 | Neon | |||
| The New Mutants | 83,135 | 127,720 | -34.9 | 215 | 12 | 387 | 23,739,630 | 20th Century | |
| The Empty Man | 80,751 | 294,350 | -72.6 | 506 | 4 | 160 | 2,921,638 | 20th Century | |
| Love and Monsters | 77,000 | 100,000 | -23.0 | 129 | 5 | 597 | 1,050,000 | Paramount |
Last Updated: November 17, 2020 at 12:30PM ET
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